Hollis Brookline girls volleyball returns to D1 final with win over Exeter

DERRY – When the Hollis Brookline and Exeter high school girls volleyball teams met during the regular season, neither knew it would be a turning point for both squads.

For the Cavaliers, it was a start of a long winning streak that took them back to the semifinals, while for the Blue Hawks, it was a moment of realization to simplify the things they were doing.

The two teams met again in Wednesday’s Division I semifinals, and while the No. 4 Cavs ended up once against beating No. 8 Exeter 3-0, the match ended up a lot closer than it was during the regular season. Game scores were 25-21, 25-17 and 25-23.

HB will try to win its second straight title at 5 p.m. on Saturday, when it plays No. 2 Concord, which beat No. 3 Dover 3-0 in the other semifinal.

“When we played them (in the regular season) and swept them, I said ‘that wasn’t you sweeping a bad team. That was you taking a very good team and playing fast, hard volleyball,’ ” HB coach Becky Balfour said. “I wasn’t surprised because they’re a great program. I knew (Exeter) was going to be great.”

Maddie Norris led the Cavs (18-3) with 19 kills while Hannah Balfour had 33 assists and 15 digs and Sammie Sheppard had 19 digs and three aces.

Exeter (14-7) got 10 kills and three aces from Sydney Johnson, while Valerie Johnson had six kills and two blocks and sophomore Kelsey Peirce, who moved to setter at the start of the season, had 19 assists and 17 digs.

But after playing aggressive, and with little letdown, that saw Exeter win eight of its previous nine matches – including an upset of top-seeded Spaulding in the quarterfinals – the Blue Hawks took a step back.

“We knew we needed to be aggressive and we needed to get our serves in,” Exeter coach Michael McDonnell said. “We didn’t execute on either end of that.

“That’s how we won tight matches during the regular season and it wasn’t there. It was a surprise to me because it’s the one thing that’s held up. You can have letdowns on defense, and you can have letdowns on offense even, and what’s been happening is when one player lets down another picks her up.”

HB led throughout the first game, taking a 4-1 lead early and extending it to 13-7 to forced Exeter to take a timeout. The Blue Hawks came back to tie it up at 15, and after the Cavs retook the lead, rallied to get to 19-18.

But HB, behind the serving of Sheppard, won four points in a row to go up 23-18, and held on for the win.

Exeter bounced back for the start of the second game, eventually going up 10-5 before HB took a timeout. The Cavs started to chip away at the lead, and eventually went ahead – again, with Sheppard at the line – by winning seven points in a row to lead 16-12.

The Blue Hawks stayed in it, tying it up at 16, but HB won nine of the final 10 points to go up 2-0.

“I wanted to play a very strong game with them and swing and hit hard,” Balfour said. “Make it difficult for them to set up their hitters, and I thought we were able to run a balanced offense throughout the match. It wasn’t only one person getting the ball.”

HB looked like it might cruise through the third game, getting out to an early lead and pushing it to 14-8 before Exeter called a timeout.

The Blue Hawks picked up a couple of points out of the break, but HB was able to keep the lead at six before Exeter began chipping away, getting the lead to one 24-23. But the Blue Hawks hit the ball into the net to end the night and send HB back to the final.